Flashing orange battery light while charge indicates 100%?

This seems like a very odd situation. When my Z60m is plugged in, my battery shows a 100% charge down next to the system tray. At the same time, I'm getting the flashing orange battery LED, which generally should only show when the battery is about to run out of charge.

When I try running on the battery by unplugging the AC adapter, the laptop loses power immediately.

I have tried performing a battery reset from the 'battery maintenance' page, but that didn't work; as soon as the process began, the computer powered off, and didn't remember what it was doing when it started up again.

Re: Flashing orange battery light while charge indicates 100%?

I have the exact same problem. Now with 2 Batteries! All this happened in the last few days. My batteries are arround 52% and 57% charges. The Power Manager indicates that my battery condition is poor and that

"A battery error has occurred. The battery cannot be charged. Replace the battery."

I've been using these 2 batteries with no problems for the last 6 months. 3 days ago, suddenly, while playing a 3d game running on batteries, the computer just turned off and It wont turn on with the battery, just with the AC adaptor. Orange battery indicator also flashing all the time.

I thaught that might be only a defective battery and I was planing to send it back to Lenovo for waranty replacement.

But then a couple of hours ago, using the other battery, the exact same thing happened. I was playing the same game (World of Warcraft, by the way) and suddenly the computer turned off, and I now have a second dead battery.

Can this "battery fuse" mentioned in the thread go off because of heating? I mean, the computer does heat a bit when playing games, but really nothing to worry about. Is it possible that the battery fuse is so sensitive?

I've read a post in some other board regarding a "procedure to manually drain the battery in Lenovo computers" which supposedly can help revive dead batt. Is this true?

Re: Flashing orange battery light while charge indicates 100%?

I had the same problem. Maybe I've found a cheap, quick, easy solution.

The flashing orange light started with the original battery. I thought, "OK, I need a new battery," although it seemed awfully premature.

My wife has the same laptop with an almost new battery. I tried her battery and the flashing continued.

I ordered a new "compatible" (non-Lenovo) battery and the flashing continued.

On Monday, I phoned Lenovo tech support. The rep guided me to some updated power management software. If the software didn't work, the problem was likely the "system board," he said, adding that the system board fix would cost nearly $500.

The software did not correct the problem.

The prospect of shelling out $500 makes me become very resourceful. I suspected all along that the various batteries weren't making proper contact with the brass prongs sticking out the rear of the laptop. By pulling or tilting the battery I could sometimes get the charging light to go from blinking orange to solid green.

I found a rectangular piece of piece of clear plastic clinging to the back of the laptop above the contacts. The contacts are mounted in a dark plastiic plug.The clear plastic piece is about a half-inch long, 1/4 inches wide and less than an eighth of an inch thick.

I pried down the plastic plug so there was a gap above it and wedged in the clear plastic, lowering the contacts a few millimeters.

When I plugged my battery in, the light immediately went to green.

I prefer neater repairs than is. But what the heck was that clear plastic doing there in the first place. Did the manufacturer discover a misalignment with the battery contacts and stick on the clear plastic to fix the problem? Was the clear plastic wedged in originally as I have done, or simply placed above the contacts, as I found it? Was the plastic wedged in originally, knowing that this was a fix that was bound to fail?

I'm not particularly proud of the repair I made, but at least I've got a laptop with a rechargeable battery.

Re: Flashing orange battery light while charge indicates 100%?

I have tried other batteries in my Laptop and they work perfectly, I have also tried my batteries in other exact same model laptops from people in the office and they don't wotk. The problem is in my batteries.

I'm starting to consider the battery fuse theory much more seriously. Is it possible that the battery fuse broke because the PC was demanding too much power from the battery? I was using a high resource-demanding game.

Anyway to me this looks more as a design defect than a battery/software issue. I mean, I was not using some dark piece of software in my laptop, I'm using Windows Vista and a game that 10 million people arround the world use daily.

Re: Flashing orange battery light while charge indicates 100%?

Kalep. Whatever the problem, we shouldn't be having these issues with a reputable computer brand such as Lenovo.

Surely, it's a design flaw.

I discovered today that my wife's Z60t battery won't work in my laptop, despite my crude fix described in the earlier post. But at least I have my "compatible" battery with a green battery light and a full charge.

I've ordered a seven-cell Lenovo battery which is supposed to be shipped July 10. Now I'm having second thoughts. It might be a waste of $185.

Re: Flashing orange battery light while charge indicates 100%?

It seems you have two different problems, although both are giving you similar symptoms of a battery no connect.

Zengrits,

It sounds like you had a mechanical fit issue - without seeing the system, I'm unsure about whether the plastic parts you are describing were originally part of a guide to ensure the battery made solid connection to the contacts. It sounds like you have accomplished this though, and resolved your trouble. Congrats.

Kalep,

It sounds like you could have a fuse that has opened (blown). This fuse is a safety mechanism, which will open under a number of conditions, often in the case when some of the cells in the battery become too different in charge capacity. In a worst case scenario, this would be the result of an internal short, so the fuse opens to prevent the battery from further charging / discharging, and limits the possibility of damage to the system from the battery. While this can occur at some point in a batteries life, like tires or brakes on your car wearing out, Lenovo has worked closely with it's battery suppliers and put in place some extended battery warranty programs.

Click here to visit the service page and see if yours qualifies for replacement.

I note a number of Z series Thinkpads listed on the last two lines of the table, so it is possible you have one of these batteries. Check your FRU number on the battery and visit the site link above.

Only the following battery FRU part numbers are affected by this issue and eligible for replacement with this web tool: